To my wife Kay andmy daughters Jennifer, Jan, and Jolyn and their families.They all support and inspire.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part I Recognize That Brands Are Assets
1. Brands are Assets that Drive Strategy
2. Brand Assets Have Real Value
Part II Have a Compelling Brand Vision
4. A Brand Personality Connects
5. The Organization and Its Higher-Purpose Differentiate
6. Get Beyond Functional Benefits
7. Create “Must Haves” Rendering Competitors Irrelevant
8. To Own an Innovation, Brand It
9. From Positioning the Brand to Framing the Subcategory
Part III Bring the Brand to Life
10. Where Do Brand-Building Ideas Come From?
11. Focus on Customer’s Sweet Spots
12. Digital—A Critical Brand-Building Tool
14. Internal Branding: A Key Ingredient
15. Three Threats to Brand Relevance
Part V Manage Your Brand Portfolio
17. You Need a Brand Portfolio Strategy
18. Brand Extensions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
19. Vertical Brand Extensions Have Risks and Rewards
20. Silo Organizations Inhibit Brand Building
Epilogue: Ten Branding Challenges
Introduction:
WHY THIS BOOK?
What is a brand? Far more than a name and logo, it is an organization’s promise to a customer to deliver what the brand stands for not only in terms of functional benefits but also emotional, self-expressive, and social benefits. But a brand is more than delivering on a promise. It is also a journey, an evolving relationship based on the perceptions and experiences that a customer has every time he or she connects to the brand.
Brands are powerful. They serve as the core of a customer relationship, a platform for strategic options, and a force that affects financials, including stock return. Consider the most compelling brands and their brand “essences.” Google is associated with competence and dominance in search engines and more, Harley-Davidson with emotional and self-expressive benefits, IBM with competent solutions-oriented computer services, Singapore Airlines with special service, Mercedes for those who appreciate the best, American Express with incredible customer satisfaction and ability to connect through digital programs, and Patagonia with sustainability. The strength of these brands has led to customer loyalty, business success, resilience despite product problems, and the basis for moving into new products or markets.
Additionally, brands and brand strategy are simply fun and interesting. Many a time has a CEO allocated half an hour to a brand strategy session and end up staying for hours affirming on their way out that the session was the most fun time working in months. It is fascinating to know what brand positions succeed, what brand-building programs get traction, how a brand is successfully leveraged into new markets, and so on. The creativity and diversity in brand strategy can be an endless source of conversation.
One objective of this book is to provide an extremely compact presentation of several dozen of the most useful branding concepts and practices organized into the “20” essential principles of branding. These principles provide a broad understanding of brands, brand strategy, brand portfolios, and brand building that all business, marketing, and brand strategists should know. This exposition of branding principles should be useful for those who would like a refresh as well as for those who lack a background in branding and would like to get up to speed quickly.
A second objective is to provide a roadmap to
